Random thoughts on technology, business, economics, new media, politics, local affairs in the Capital Region, music, the collapse of community, the corruption of the American Dream, fighting the evil bastards amongst us and suggestions for fixing this fucking mess.

"I ain't here to make friends, cowboy; I'm here to tell you the ugly truth. So you might as well get out of that warm bed and deal with it."

Jul 11, 2012

The label, of course, is that of “the
world's greatest/biggest jam band.” But such a tag sells this
group short; the reality being that this is not just a great jam
band, but also a great rock & roll band as well. Plain and
simple. Then we get to the “sum of its parts” equation;
here is the epitome of what the word band is all about.

2. You Did, Huh?

“I saw them when they played at
that joint on Caroline Street way back when.” If every person
that uttered that line was actually there, the place would
have needed to fit 2,000 people. It didn't. This and the many other
local connections make it all very special. It is only appropriate
that Phish becomes the first Special Event act to convene a
three-night run at the facility.

3. Show Virgins

I ran across a great many Phish first
timers, with most of them being locals. The reaction was universal,
along the lines of “now I get it,” “simply amazing” or
“WTF?” Welcome,where y'all been? Good
stuff. The local zen can only benefit.

4. Jon Fishman, Drums

What separates your better jam band
drummer from their straight ahead rock counterparts is their jazz
sensibilities, hitting various skins all over the place and on
different time maps. No better example is out there than this guy;
the one in the tutu.

5. Page McConnell, Keyboards

With all due respect to the red head
with the big smile, McConnell is the glue holding this band together.
His chord meanderings bring visions of Bill Evans, providing the
perfect roadmap for any given song's journey to somewhere. Maybe
this is really better classified as a jazz band, hmmm?

6. Trey Anastasio, Guitar

One wouldn't likely rank Trey as a top
axeman of all time; from a technical perspective at least. But does
anyone make the dipsy-twiddle to rock-jam climax transition better
than the way he does? It might come down to Trey and Jimmy Herron of
Widespread Panic for that honor. Let's call it a draw.

7. Mike Gordon, Bass

When you look up on stage at the four,
Gordo becomes someone you think is possessed by an external force,
his life form taken over by a spirit intent on using him as a vessel
to generate an emotional tsunami among the assembled masses. The
funny thing is, such thinking might actually be true. Magically
creative bass lines and runs, all night long.

8. Best Line of the Weekend

At the Formula 5 after-party on
Saturday night, a pair of young men approached the venue's door for
entry. One arrived with a six-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon (naturally)
in tow while his companion was armed with a half empty/half full
bottle of Jack Daniels. When greeted by a staff member with a “you
gotta be kidding me, right?”, the retort was a beauty: “ Oh,
sorry man: I lost track of where we were.”

9. Greatest Comeback Ever?

No; not Phish. We're talking about the
aforementioned PBR. As predicted in an earlier post, this was the
beer of choice for this crowd. Just ask the DPW street cleaning
crews; they can no doubt verify this theory.

As someone who knows a little something
about this kind of stuff, I say we're looking at one of the most
innovative and successful brand turnarounds in modern consumer
marketing. Pabst was something you drank in the 60's and 70's only
because it was there in front of you, one of many cheap domestic
options of the day with nothing to really differentiate it from the
dozens of others. By the 80's, it had disappeared from the national
radar screen; I'm not sure if it was even brewed for awhile.

Then somehow in the past decade, it
reincarnated as the quaffing favorite of both Jam Band Nation and the
urban hipsters. Think about that dynamic. In addition, every blue
collar bar seems to have it on tap, usually as the least expensive
choice. Likewise, every music club and festival loads up on it as
well, and it's the top seller.

Something like this doesn't just happen
by accident. We need to know the name of the person who designed and
executed this campaign. We have a medal to pin on his or her chest!
The Nanoburgh Awards?

10. The Dead Shadow

A very tired argument is the
long-running “Dead vs Phish” nonsense. Rooted mostly in
the good old days nostalgia of the aging Dead Heads, its
general theme is that Phish is nothing more than an inferior v2.0 of
the original space cowboys. To this, there are only two replies
necessary:

Get there (see #3, above)

After; please reflect on: a) how
those long phreak-groove sessions you just heard reminded you of the
old gang; and b) how the stop-and-go's and hard blasting crescendos
didn't …

11. Economic Whatever

The Idiot Chorus of the Usual
Suspects was not to go unheard from this past weekend. Their
chant: a demand that the city of Saratoga Springs should somehow be
“reimbursed” by somebody (SPAC, Live Nation, Phish, ticket
buyers?) for the extra public safety expenses incurred as a result of
these three massive concerts and the accompanying horde of followers
that encamped locally over that period. How one responds to such
nonsense --- or even why? --- are both legitimate questions,
but we'll give it a go here:

Talking Point # 1: a convenience store
owner having to call his beverage distributor for emergency re-stocks
--- three times.

Talking Point #2: a local resident who
rented his home out for the three nights – for $3,000.

Talking Point #3: hotels and
campgrounds within a 30-mile radius were all sold out – obscene
rates and all. One local motel owner boosted his per-nite charge from
$120 to $300. They all made similar moves. No one seemed to blink.

Nanoburgh's sister event-production
company (398Productions) even got in on the fun, hosting midnight
Phish after-parties at the Parting Glass. Here's a look at those
numbers:

300+ people walked into the venue
on each night, at a time when it would normally have been closed for
the evening.

The crowds ate and drank –
heavily – thereby boosting the venue's coffers nicely, as well as
that of their local suppliers.

Extra work hours (and income) were
therefore generated for the venue's staff

Each night also provided an extra
pay day for: a band; a sound man; a lighting technician; door and
security people and a show producer.

Now take these examples and dare
project some semblance of scale across both the city and county, for
all economic activity generated by those visitors that came for these
three shows. Next, make some sort of estimate of where that newly
gained monies are next spent by the people who just received them.
Tally all of that up and add it to the mix. Repeat a couple of times.
That there is what's called an economic multiplier calculation.
Finally, make an estimate of sales tax revenues that end up in the
city and county treasuries as a result of many/most of these
purchases. Need we go further? Did we break-even here on paying for
those extra cops yet?

For sure, this type of an event
presents tough challenges to its host city. But so do the Olympics,
the Super Bowl or the race course for that matter. But go whine to
any other municipal official in New York, and you're sure to get a
“now that's a problem I wish we had here” response. From
the smart ones, at least.

12. The Economics of Traffic Control

There is one problem preventing the
city from taking full advantage of the economic opportunity presented
above. It's called traffic policy.

At the end of a SPAC concert, car
traffic is often directed AWAY from the city. That's right, most
exits result in one being forced to head south for the sake of
maximum car flow and a mission of getting as many cars onto the
Northway and Rt 50 ASAP. This is a problem if one lives north of
SPAC, of course. But it also acts as a serious detriment to
encouraging someone to head downtown after the show to drop some
green there.

13. Intangible

Saturday's show was broadcast live on
XM Radio. That's globally, folks. Now what's that worth to the
Goodwill line of the city's Balance Sheet? Any CPAs in the
audience?

14. The Emerging Police State

Don't get us started here. The last
time we checked, alcohol was a legal commodity in this state. Not to
mention the fact that alcohol is allowed in the Spa Park on all
non-concert days. And what exactly is the rationale for treating
these visitors as if they were an invading army of Huns and turning
the place into a de facto war zone? How would this same
action play if alcohol was also banned at the horse races? Shush;
don't dare give them any ideas. And people are complaining about
extra public safety costs (see #11)? This initiative could
alternatively be viewed as a glorified make-work project for
the law enforcement industry. Oops, sorry: we got started ...

At the Friday night after-party
featuring The Garcia Project, a pair of tickets to Saturday's Phish
show were up for grabs. They were provided by the good folks at
Decresente Distributing. The winner was a young man named Safe
Korwell-Ure.

Celebrating with the lucky gent, we
found an interesting story. He is a new visitor to this country,
having somehow landed in Virginia. There, he got caught up with a
bunch of Phish heads, who invited him to tag along on the long drive
to Saratoga for a weekend at the circus. Along he came, without even
an admission ticket nor much of an idea who Phish was, for that
matter.

Surprise of all surprises, it ends up
that this Garcia Project show was his very first experience in
hearing a live rock and roll band, in-person! No kidding. After his
good fortune and lucky ticket stub, Phish became his Show #2. To say
he was overjoyed would be an understatement. We couldn't have rigged
this drawing to come up with a better result.